As an unabashed pro wrestling fanatic, who has never quite managed to reverse the effects of being immersed from a young age in a culture of forged fracas and bogus bouts, I tend to view the world through a prism of suspended disbelief; and so it isn’t uncommon for me to come across situations that I believe mirror WWE storylines in pretty much every walk of life.
Admittedly, the vast majority of the comparisons I draw are figments of an imagination that has been conditioned by copious amounts of Vince McMahon Kool-Aid, and will fall down faster than Mick Foley hurtling from the roof of Hell in a Cell if subjected to any real scrutiny. I do, however, maintain that there are a few too many instances of clear similarities between WWE and Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire plots to be completely coincidental.
Have I stumbled across a discovery of Jon Snow’s parentage proportions, or should I listen to my dad and stop spending so much time watching oiled-up carnies stage phoney fights in their underwear? Here are five examples to help you decide.
5. Hellfire and Cleganebowl
The first, and perhaps most compelling, case for suggesting an element of light plagiarism could be levelled at WWE (then WWF) for the Undertaker and Kane storyline, which began less than a year after George R. R. Martin introduced the tragedy of the Mountain and the Hound in the opening book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series, A Game of Thrones (1996).
During a tournament held to celebrate Ned Stark’s ill-fated ascent to the office of Hand of the King, we learn through a conversation between Ned’s daughter Sansa and the conniving Littlefinger that two of the betting favourites, brothers Gregor ‘the Mountain’ and Sandor ‘the Hound’ Clegane, are in fact mortal enemies. When sweet, naive Sansa questions how such a thing could be possible, she is told of how, as children, the older Gregor pressed Sandor’s face into a burning brazier as punishment for playing with one of his discarded toys. The official explanation for the incident, which left little Sandor horrifically burnt, was an accidental bedding fire, contrived by the boys’ father in order protect his house’s reputation.
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| Gregor (right) and Sandor (left) clashed briefly at the Tourney of the Hand (Season 1/A Game of Thrones) |
Fast forward to spring 1997, and newly crowned WWF Champion the Undertaker finds himself being blackmailed by his former manager Paul Bearer, who claims to possess knowledge of a dark secret that could destroy the Phenom’s career. After months of suspense, it is finally revealed that the fabled funeral parlour where Bearer once worked had been owned by the Undertaker’s family; that was until it was destroyed in a fire caused by Undertaker himself, killing both his parents and, he believed, his younger brother Kane.
As it turned out, Kane didn’t perished in the blaze, and had instead spent his life locked in an insane asylum, dreaming of the day when he could exact revenge on his famous sibling for ‘murdering’ (as Bearer put it) their parents, and leaving him hideously scarred both inside and out. That opportunity finally came when he was released into the care of Bearer - who, weirdly, we later found out was actually Kane’s natural father - presumably without disclosure of the plan to have him embark on a campaign of extreme violence, culminating with Undertaker being thrown into a casket that was then set on fire at the 1998 Royal Rumble.
With all of that in mind, the similarities between the last scions of House Clegane and the Brothers of Destruction are rather striking. Both Gregor and the Undertaker are renowned for their immense size and prowess in combat, leaving Sandor and Kane to share the burden of standing burnt to a pyrophobic crisp in their vast shadows. It is heavily implied throughout AsoIaF that Gregor, in his ‘rages’, disposed of his father, sister and first two wives, while Undertaker was the arsonist who was, albeit unintentionally (to hear him tell it), responsible for the fire that took his parents’ life. Gregor and Undertaker led their own dark, terrifying groups in the Mountain’s Men and the Ministry of Darkness, whereas Sandor and Kane, seeking acceptance having lost everything at the hands of their respective brothers, leveraged their own imposing physiques to achieve gainful employment within powerful groups - the Lannisters and the Corporation - whose malevolent actions would drive them to a crossroads from where they each resolved to follow their own moral compass.
Even as the Game of Thrones TV show passes the book series and begins wrapping up its version of Martin’s story, the parallels between these two inter-feuding families continue. Gregor has finally been slain in combat, only to return as an undead zombie warrior, which is basically the Undertaker’s original gimmick from his first WWF/E run in the early ‘90s; and Sandor, after a Kane and X-Pac-like buddy adventure with Arya Stark, followed by a period of reflection on the spiritual Quiet Isle, is learning to control his demons and even engage in fire cult rituals with his current companions, the Brotherhood Without Banners.
For many GoT and ASoIaF readers alike, the burning [ahem!] question remains will Gregor and Sandor ever have their own WrestleMania XIV, or ‘Cleganebowl’, as it’s commonly known; or perhaps, dare I say it, settle their differences and fight alongside one another, as the Undertaker and Kane did on numerous occasions down the years, in the coming War for the Dawn II against the Others? The altercation they had at the aforementioned Tourney of the Hand whetted the appetite by presenting them as near equals, and went some way towards confirming the suspicions that surround the deaths of the Clegane's father and sister, by demonstrating Gregor's disregard for the long-held Westerosi belief that there is 'none more accursed than the kinslayer'.
[Personally, I think that, in the show at least, Sandor will begrudgingly accept that UnGregor is his brother in appearance only, and agree to make use of him in battle. However, the Night King will then take control of the Mountain’s body - him being effectively a wight - and that’s when we’ll get the fight we’ve been waiting for.]
Although I’d be as excited as anyone to see Cleganebowl happen, to me there’s an even more pressing matter to be resolved. If Paul Bearer is Kane’s father, and his son is almost identical in size to the enormous Undertaker, exactly how big was their mother?
@softparadeblog
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| The seed isn't strong. |
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